About Cal Skinner

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Scheduling of Court Cases

Sitting through an hour of Judge Thomas Meyer’s court proceedings before the Zane Seipler Special Prosecutor request case has convinced me that the 22nd Circuit Court Judges should hire a management consultant.

Most of the hour was spent re-scheduling cases that were not ready for trial.

This does not seem like a good use of the time of a $171,000 a year public servant hired to made judicial decisions.

I would bet that a management consultant would have these attorneys queuing up in the Circuit Clerk’s Office where a clerk would use a computer program to schedule future hearings to match the judge’s available days with those when both attorneys could make it to his courtroom.

And one does not need a Master’s Degree in Public Administration, which I earned at the University of Michigan, to be able to realize that vast improvements could be made in the work flow at the Courthouse.

Also obvious was that the Courtroom doesn’t qualify as an open forum.

While Judge Meyer could be heard most of the time, hardly any of the male lawyers talked loud enough for spectators to understand their words.

Only two female attorneys, Jennifer Gibson and Sandy Kerrick, projected their voices well enough to be heard.

Unfortunately, the courtroom microphones record testimony for transcription, not for amplification in the courtroom, so that the public can hear. One day I was told I could just buy a transcript, if I wanted to know what was said.

I think it was in Judge Meyer’s courtroom a while back that even he could not hear the lawyer who was speaking to him. Judge Meyer had leaned forward and still could not hear. Finally he told the lawyer that he was going to have to speak up!